The Reminder
by Another Dilettante
Summary: When Bernard begins to question why he ever accepted the job as Head Elf Lucy reminds him.
1. Chapter 1

I of course don't own The Santa Clause or any of the characters. Disney does.

Part 1

"The printer in the Naughty and Nice center is eating the paper…again," Curtis informed Bernard with a frown. Bernard turned from the railing he had been standing in front of to look out over part of the workshop.

Bernard sighed. This had to be the third time in a week and fifth time that month. They really needed to look into getting a new printer. There were too many kids to write the list by hand anymore and he wouldn't heap that torture upon anyone, even during the worst of his moods.

"They can't get it to stop. They can't print anything out and we need that list done by the end of the week so Santa can start checking it," Curtis's forehead creased in worry.

"Uh, Bernard, one of the conveyor belts in the workshop won't run properly," an elf spoke up from behind Bernard. Turning to face the elf while at the same time resisting the urge to groan, Bernard found himself looking down at Larry.

"Alright Larry, which one?"

"The one for the teddy bears." Larry kept his distance from Bernard. He could tell he wasn't in the greatest of moods and the last thing he wanted was to get stuck in the crossfire during one of Bernard's moods. Had had already experienced that one too many times. To be fair to Bernard though, even though he could be moody at times, it was rare for him to full out yell at any of the elves, except for Curtis. He was usually the one to bear the brunt of Bernard's anger.

"Wait, why did they send you?" Bernard asked confused. Larry usually worked in the stables, not the workshop.

"I came to let you know that Comet is sick and the conveyor belt stopped when I was walking past. I figured I might as well be the one to deliver both sets of bad news."

"Can't one of the mechanics take a look at the conveyor belt?"

"We couldn't get a hold of any of them."

"Ugh," Bernard put his head in his hands for a moment. Then dropping his hands from his face he turned back around to address Curtis.

"I'll go take care of the conveyor belt then I'll head to the stables. You go fix the printer." Before Curtis could even open his mouth to agree or protest Bernard stalked off in the direction of the teddy bear assembly area.

"Okay, boss," Curtis made a face at the back of Bernard's retreating figure. Curtis turned and noticed Larry still standing there. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be? Isn't time for the reindeer's lunch?"

"Yeah, I guess so, _boss," _Larry smirked. He turned away and soon disappeared into the crowd of hardworking elves.

"What's the problem here?" Bernard asked as he walked up to the motionless conveyor belt full of teddy bears. All the elves standing around it turned to look at him. He stood with his hands on his hips waiting for an elf to answer him. A few seconds ticked by before any of them replied.

"The conveyor belt stopped," a small female elf with bouncy blonde curls stated the obvious.

"Then the engine started smoking," the elf boy standing beside her added.

"So we turned it off," the girl elf finished.

All the elves stood silently watching Bernard as he started inspecting the conveyor belt. Walking the length of the conveyor belt, he noticed a string of garland hanging off the side that disappeared into the area where the gears and engine were housed. He walked over to the controls to make sure that the conveyor belt was completely shut off before squatting down to open the wooden door that gave him full access to the gears and engine. "The garland jammed it," he informed the elves as he poked around the gears. "And holy jingle bells that is that some strong garland," he mumbled to himself.

"The printer is on a blitz," Curtis stopped beside Bernard, huffing and puffing loudly.

"Did you shut it down?" Bernard stood back up.

A look of surprise crossed Curtis's face. "No, didn't think of it."

Bernard looked at him incredulously. "You didn't think of it? How could you not-" Bernard took a deep breath, "you know what, just never mind. Fix the conveyor belt instead and I'll take care of the printer," Bernard pushed passed Curtis and took off at a run in the direction of the naughty and nice center.

Curtis bent down to look in at the gears. "Garland?" he pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked over at the elves currently working in the teddy bear department. They had all huddled into a group. They all watched him with the same curiosity they had watched Bernard with. "Whose idea was it to hang garland off of the conveyor belt?"

Every elf pointed at someone standing beside them, some even pointed at the elves on both sides of them. Curtis glanced back at the garland caught in the gears. "How am I supposed to get it out of there?"

Bernard plopped down onto his couch and slid his feet out of his shoes. One thing he had learned over the years of working as Arch Elf was that when something went wrong, so did everything else. It was a small fact that his feet and stress levels did not appreciate, ever. He wiggled his toes; it felt good to be out of his shoes and off of his feet. Stretching his legs out, he propped his feet up on his coffee table.

Days like these made him wonder why he had ever accepted the position of Arch Elf in the first place. Back then the promotion had come as a shock to him, one he hadn't seen coming. Of course he also hadn't been expecting the previous Arch Elf to completely fall off his rocker and then turn to dust once he had finally lost his Christmas spirit.

Things had been much different when he had first become Head Elf. No one was even dreaming of the electronic technology of the modern age yet. The toys were simple and fairly easy to make, instead of video games and computers it was dolls and hoops. Not long after his promotion to Head Elf he got to see the ball craze kick off after a few imaginative and very inventive elves managed to make their idea come to life. He didn't care what anyone down south believed, the North Pole was the true, original home of the ball.

Closing his eyes, he flopped down onto his back. He rested his head against his right arm and let his left arm drape across the top of the pillow. His colorfully painted ceiling greeted his tired gaze. The previous Head Elf had it painted to look like the northern lights, a reminder that they lived in the North Pole even though they didn't live on the surface. In Bernard's opinion it hadn't been a bad choice; after all he didn't get to actually see the Northern lights very often.

He glanced over at the gold and highly ornate clock hanging on his wall, it read 5:23.

Right now, the elves finished with work for the day would be out playing. Around this time there was always a group of elves out playing tinsel football. Out on the edge of the pole there would be snowboarding and sled riding races and somewhere in Elfsburg there would be a snowball fight going on. And if he remembered correctly, the Elfsburg theater was putting on a play sometime within the next two hours.

He'd miss out on all of it. For the second night in a row he planned on just staying in his house for the night. Sitting home alone while wallowing in self-misery might not be the best idea, but it was all he felt like doing.

"This sort of thing is probably what helped lead the previous arch elf into bouts of insanity," Bernard paused, "I need to quit talking to myself when I'm alone."

"Bernard, are you there?" Santa's voice crackled out of Bernard's watch.

He lifted the watch up to his mouth. "Yeah, Santa, I'm here. What do you need?"

"Do you think you could come down here for a bit? I could use some help."

Bernard rolled his eyes. "Santa, I'm an elf. I take care of the problems at the North Pole, and well, seeing as you're not at the North Pole right now…"

"_Please_ Bernard. I'll make it worth your while." When Bernard didn't answer right away Santa gave it another try. "As your boss I order you to come down here."

Resisting a groan once again, Bernard gave in. "Fine." He knew that if he didn't go down, Santa would find a way to make him regret it later, probably in the form of constant guilt trips.


	2. Chapter 2

Sadly Disney owns the Santa Clause and it's characters, not me.

Part 2

Bernard appeared in the Miller's kitchen in a shower of gold sparkles. He wrinkled his nose at the burnt smell drifting through the kitchen.

"It's about time you showed up!" Santa's cheery voice greeted him.

"It hasn't even been a minute since I spoke to you on the radio," Bernard responded indignantly.

"I know, lighten up will you? Everyone went out shopping for Lucy's birthday presents so I'm staying at home with her but I need to make a run to the store -"

"You want me to babysit?" Bernard half yelled, half asked in a high voice.

"No, well, yes, but don't think of it that way! Think of it as…watching Lucy for me," Santa suggest with a flourish of his hand.

"Watching, babysitting, same thing! Why do you need to go to the store, can't you wait until the Miller's get back?" Bernard put his hands on his hips and gave Santa a hard stare.

"Laura and Neil are visiting Laura's parents two hours away once they are done shopping and their spending the night so I have to make breakfast tomorrow too. The only thing I can cook for breakfast is scrambled eggs and toast and we're out of eggs and we're almost out of milk. I already screwed up dinner so I'd like to at least have a somewhat decent breakfast tomorrow," Santa gestured towards the burnt grilled cheese sandwiches sitting on a plate on the counter. "Besides, it'll do you some good to get away from the stress at the North Pole," he clapped Bernard on the back as he walked past him to get to the front door.

"Santa, I can't baby sit," Bernard followed after him.

"Lucy, dinner!" Santa called up the stairs before turning his attention back to Bernard. "You were always good with Charlie when he was little, better than me," he grabbed his coat off of the coat hanger and shrugged into it.

Before Bernard could think of a reply Lucy came bounding down the stairs noisily. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her gaze glued to Bernard. After a short moment her face lit up.

"Uncle Scott! You brought me an elf to play with?"

"Sure did, he's going to play with you while I make a quick trip to the grocery store," he smiled at the sour look Bernard shot him.

"Thanks Uncle Scott!" Lucky rushed to Bernard and excitedly hugged him.

"You two have fun," Santa waved goodbye before closing the front door behind him.

Lucy stepped back and looked up at him expectantly. "Aren't you too tall to be an elf?" she asked suspiciously.

"No, I'm the the head elf," Bernard stated proudly.

Lucy's wrinkled her nose in thought. "So you boss all the other elves around," she reasoned.

"I don't boss them around!" Bernard found himself protesting.

Lucy smiled at him. "Its okay, someone has to be the boss, I won't hold it against you," she reached out and took his hand and led him to the dining room. "My name is Lucy," she added as she walked him to the table.

"I know who you are," Bernard couldn't fight the smile building up in him any longer.

"And I know who you are too, your Bernard. Charlie told me about you, you're the one who gave him his snow globe. Now just sit right here and I will be right back," she pulled out a chair and patted the seat to emphasize her point.

Bernard gave her a low bow, "As you wish my lady," he sat down in the chair and Lucy grinned.

"Okay, be right back," she ran off to the kitchen and Bernard pulled his sleeve up to look at his watch. It was almost six o clock. He silently hoped to himself that Santa wouldn't take too long at the store.

"I got my cards," Lucy announced as she walked into the room with her sandwiches and deck of cards.

"You can have one if you want," Lucy offered as she sat her food down on the table.

"No thanks, those are a little too burnt for me."

She crawled onto the chair across the table from him. "Do you know how to play Go Fish?"

"Of course." He watched her pull the cards out of the box. "These are my very own cards, Uncle Scott gave them to me for Christmas," she happily informed him. The beep of the microwave drew her attention to the kitchen. "I'll be right back again. Here, you shuffle and deal while I'm gone," she sat the cards in front of him and hurried back off to the kitchen again while yelling "and no cheating!" over her shoulder. Ignoring the clinking sounds from the kitchen, he picked up the cards and shuffled them. Once he was satisfied that the cards were mixed up enough, he dealt them out then waited.

It wasn't much longer before Lucy walked slowly into the room with two mugs in her hands. Her face was twisted in concentration as she focused hard on not spilling anything.

"I know elves really like cocoa so I made us some hot chocolate," she carefully sat the mugs down on the table. "We don't have any cocoa so it's the closest thing I could find."

Bernard couldn't help but to feel touched by her gesture. "Thanks Lucy," he reached out and ruffled her hair. She made a face and immediately reached up to fix her hair.

"Okay, let's play," she sat back in her chair. "I have to warn you though; I'm really good at this game."

"Are there penguins at the North Pole," Lucy rolled onto her side in her bed and propped herself up on her elbow. Bernard sat in a chair beside her. She had spent the last five minutes relentlessly questioning him about the North Pole.

"No, no penguins?"

"Why not?"

"Because penguins live at the South Pole, but we do have polar bears."

"Have they ever eaten any of the elves?" Lucy's expression turned scared at the thought. Bernard laughed.

"No, no elf has ever been eaten by a polar bear. Now go to bed," Bernard stood up and stretched.

"But I want to hear more about the North Pole," Lucy whined. "Just one more question, please?" she begged.

"If I let you ask one more question do you promise to go to bed then?"

"I promise. I just want to know what Uncle Scott was like before he became Santa."

Bernard smiled, "He was an idiot," Bernard crossed the room and stood in the door way. He widened his eyes dramatically and lowered his voice so that it was just barely above a whisper, "And he didn't believe in Santa Claus or the North Pole," as soon as he finished talking he flipped the light off. "Now you know so get some sleep, sweet dreams Lucy."

"Night Bernard," she replied sleepily.

"Is she asleep?" Santa asked from the couch when Bernard walked down the stairs. Santa had his feet propped up on the coffee table and Bernard had the feeling that if Laura knew, she wouldn't be very happy about it.

"Not yet, but she should be any minute."

Santa fumbled for the remote and hit mute. "What did you read to her?"

"The Night Before Christmas," Bernard leaned back against the wall with a smile.

"In June?"

"It's what she wanted me to read," Bernard shrugged.

"I appreciate it. I'm not good at the whole babysitting thing. Charlie didn't even want to visit with me until I became Santa. And obviously I still can't cook."

"I don't think Lucy minds the burnt food, I think you're getting her used to it," Bernard joked as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"Sorry if I made you mad, I just didn't know what else to do and she's always going on about how she wants to meet the elves," Santa apologized as he stared at his belly, his finger tracing the pattern on his sweater.

"Its fine, Santa. I enjoyed myself tonight actually. It was a nice reminder of what my job is all about – I think I needed it. Lucy's a sweet girl." Plus spending time with Lucy made him realize how much he missed the days when Charlie was younger. He still liked Charlie, they both got along and Charlie had come up with some great ideas over the years, but it just wasn't the same now that he was a teenager. Charlie no longer regarded him with the same fascination that Lucy did. His mind went back to what he had been doing before coming to the Miller's house and yeah, he thought he definitely needed this little trip.

"Her birthday is in a week, I was hoping that maybe you could stop by. You don't have to stay, just stop by real fast."

"I think I can do that, maybe I will even bring her a present," Bernard pushed himself away from the wall.

"What kind of present?" Santa watched him intently.

Bernard smiled at him. "A snow globe of course." A thoughtful expression crossed Bernard's face. "Santa, do you know why I accepted the job as Head Elf?" He turned to gaze out the window.

"No," Santa asked confused.

"I was in love with the joy that Christmas gave to people, especially children. When Santa offered me the job he gave me a day to think about it. I left the North Pole that night to wander around New York City. I listened to the carolers out on the streets and looked at all the Christmas decorations in store front windows. Do you know how children sometimes recognize you and just know that you're Santa?"

Santa nodded even though Bernard couldn't see him.

Bernard continued anyway. "I was standing in front of a store that had a tall Christmas tree decorated with silver ornaments and white lights in the window. I felt a tug on my coat and I turned to see a little brunette girl who was about five standing there staring at me. I got down so that we were face to face and asked her what she wanted," Bernard smiled at the memory. He turned away from the window to look at Santa. "She asked if Santa had gotten her letter asking for a princess doll. I told her he had and that as long as she continued being a good girl she would get it. She hugged me then ran off with a big smile to tell her mom what I had said."

He paused, letting his gaze drift to the carpet.

"Bernard," Santa called his name to get his attention.

"Hmm?" Bernard looked up.

"Your story?"

"Oh, yeah," Bernard smiled sheepishly. "After that I wanted to make sure that she really did get her Princess doll and the only way I could do that was to take the position as Head Elf. I wanted to make sure that as many kids as possible got what they wanted and not just some other toy. I wanted to make sure Christmas stayed magical for kids. Kids like Lucy."

Santa smiled. "It's good to know that you still have a soft spot in your old age," he teased. Bernard shot him a dirty look, earning a hearty chuckle from Santa.

Bernard checked his watch. "I've got to go now Santa, I need to get some sleep myself, tomorrow is going to be a long day," with that said, he disappeared into a shower of gold sparkles.

Santa stared at the sparkles as they floated towards the ground and faded. "I'll never get used to him doing that."


End file.
